This invention relates in general to playback of a visual production and more specifically to using multiple display screens to display multiple video streams.
Enjoyment of digital content is growing in popularity. Video and movies can be viewed from platforms such as computer systems, consumer digital devices such as video compact disc (CD), DVD players, and other displays, systems or platforms. Other formats, such as those promulgated by the Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) allow stored or streamed visual productions over digital networks.
Recent advances in display technology allow picture-in-picture displays of two or more video streams, or channels, on a single display device. A user, or viewer, of a television can select a primary channel and can also view other, secondary, channels in smaller windows on the single screen.
Multiple streams of video information obtained from stored media such as DVDs can also be displayed simultaneously. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,101 describes a video decoding system for retrieving multiple views from a DVD content source. The views can then be selectively displayed as primary and secondary views. The secondary views are displayed within sub-windows in the primary view.
Although these approaches allow enhancement of a user's viewing experience by simultaneously presenting multiple views of video, the approaches are limited in usefulness. Therefore it is desirable to provide improvements to the prior art to enhance and expand upon content viewing for entertainment, education, efficient presentation of information and other purposes.